Employees help nab alleged serial shoplifters

Annastasia Velez

Ruby Gonzalez

NORTH FORT MYERS: Two Lehigh Acres women were arrested Tuesday night for shoplifting $2,300 worth of items from area CVS stores.

Deputy Stephen Sutphin pulled up to the store at 15050 N. Cleveland Avenue and saw employees motioning him towards the suspects' red Dodge Durango, which was stopped at a traffic light on Pine Island Road.

Sutphin pulled the vehicle over and order both women inside to get out of the Durango.

As Annastasia Velez, 22, of W. 56th Street in Lehigh Acres, got out of the SUV, deputies say she locked the doors and tossed the keys inside – thus blocking traffic in the westbound lane of Pine Island Road.

Another deputy arrived and put Velez and 24-year-old Ruby Gonzalez, of SW 50th Street in Lehigh, into separate patrol cars.

While looking through the windows of the Durango, deputies said they could see a leather purse with several boxes of medication inside.

When the talked to the store manager, he said store personnel suspected the women were trying to steal items.

They allegedly spent some time in the bathroom before heading to the counter with a basket of items.

A supervisor went into the bathroom and noticed a number of items from the store in the trash can, hidden under wadded-up toilet paper.

As she confronted the women at checkout, the manager said the women abandoned the items in the basket and walked out the door - setting off the security system.

The supervisor asked the women to look at their purses.

Gonzalez showed her an empty purse, but Velez reportedly refused and said "Don't touch me!" before they got into the Durango and took off.

Since deputies could see the items in the SUV, they had the tow truck operator called to remove the vehicle open the door for them.

Inside they say they found $193 worth of items in Velez's purse that appeared to be stolen from CVS, including multiple boxes each of Benadryl, contact lens cleaner, pain reliever and Mylicon.

The bathroom trash can had another $236 of merchandise, including eye wash, pain reliever, perfume and Mylicon.

Deputies say they also found two boxes of items that had tags on them from two CVS stores in Cape Coral, on Santa Barbara Boulevard and Del Prado.

Those boxes contained $1,900 in items, many of which were the same kinds of things taken from the North Fort Myers store.

Both women refused to talk to investigators and they remain in the Lee County Jail on charges of theft and misdemeanor criminal conspiracy.

Velez is also charged with driving on a suspended license – a felony, because deputies say it's the third time she's been caught doing it.

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